SOUTH YARMOUTH — The head of the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District teachers union had a few words for school Superintendent Carol Woodbury at Monday's school committee meeting.

"I was shocked and troubled by the layoffs," Erin Porter, president of the Dennis-Yarmouth Educators Association, said about the more than 30 teachers, aides and monitors whose jobs were cut on Feb. 14.

The association was aware of a budget shortfall, Porter said, but didn't learn of the planned layoffs until the day before when the school committee was told.

Porter asked the superintendent Monday night whether the layoffs were in any way connected to the development of an in-house autism program with the New England Center for Children late last summer, just prior to school opening.

The program cost was $336,000, very close to the $322,000 recouped from the staff layoffs, Porter said.

"Was the administration aware of the costs of this program?" Porter asked. In the administration's PowerPoint budget presentation Monday night, the autism program was listed under "unanticipated" special education expenses.

The school superintendent did not respond to Porter's question at the meeting, but she did ask Porter for her comments in writing.

The union president said Tuesday she was confident Woodbury would provide an answer.

Woodbury did not respond to a Tuesday call for comment from the Times.

Porter suggested laying off administrators if further budget cuts become necessary.

Also on Monday night, Mary Loebig, teacher and chairwoman of the high school's alternative learning program, criticized the timing of the layoffs for affected employees. "To be told halfway through the year, when you've signed a contract is devastating," Lopez said.

Health teacher Penny McGee said she left school "distraught" on Feb. 14, after a special education aide was laid off. "I know she made a huge difference to the students," McGee said.

Dennis parent Lisa Morales told the school committee she was filing a complaint of an Open Meeting Law violation against four committee members who had written about the budget on a parent Facebook page.

Principals at the district's various schools reported Monday that students were not being impacted by the layoffs, but both teachers and administrators were being tapped to fill in gaps where needed.

Woodbury, who has been criticized by both parents and teachers for the lack of notice regarding the layoffs, said Monday she was showing respect to the employees targeted for layoff by telling them the news first.

"Lots of people want to tell me I should have done it differently," Woodbury said. "Maybe I should have. But this was not a ploy. It wasn't playing political games with the union, and I don't play games with the children's lives. There were things that had to be done so I did them."